Mentoring programs - FAQs

It's a feature that lets you run structured, role-based mentoring programs from end to end. It covers everything from enrolling mentors and mentees, to smart matching, to guiding each pair through a defined journey, all the way to giving every pair their own shared space to track progress and book sessions together.

Any organization looking to formalize mentoring at scale: onboarding buddy programs, reverse mentoring, DEI/ERG circles, leadership development, or classic senior-junior mentoring. If you can define mentors and mentees, RandomCoffee can help you pair, guide, and track them.

Mentorship is available as an add-on on the Pro and Enterprise plans.

Go to the Program section → Create New Program → Create from Scratch → select the Mentorship option.

Your mentoring programs are automatically flagged with a purple "Mentorship" tag so they're easy to tell apart from your other Coffee Connect programs.

Yes, for example, mentoring on one skill while being mentored on another. We recommend setting up a "Multiple choice" category with the values "Mentor" and "Mentee" so members can hold either or both roles.

Yes. With open enrollment, you can attach a Registration Form to gather details as people join, then map their answers to your matching categories.

Yes, if admin accounts are part of your mentor/mentee audiences, you can toggle them out of pairings.

You define the rules: seniority, skills, department, or any attribute from your directory and RandomCoffee proposes the pairs. You can go fully automatic, or review, adjust, and approve every match before any notification goes out. Either way, members receive a transparent explanation of why they were paired.

We recommend the Category overlap matching rule. Create two "Multiple choice" categories; one for Mentor Skills, one for Mentee Skills; and let the algorithm match on shared skills.

Yes, you can set a fixed number of mentees per mentor, or link it to a category value so it varies mentor by mentor. Some may take on one mentee, others three.

A milestone is a step in the mentorship journey / session.

For example: Kickoff → Assessment → Deep dive → Projects → Reflection → Wrap-up.

Each one can have its own goal, description, and resources.

A session is the event that creates a pairing (e.g., a new round of matches every quarter). A milestone is one of the meetings a mentor and mentee have within that session. So a single session can include several milestones; the full roadmap you've defined for the relationship.

Booking is built in. Pairs can book directly from their shared space, and each meeting can be marked as completed once it's happened; giving admins full visibility into what's booked and what's done, right from the dashboard.

You choose the channel: Email, Microsoft Teams, or Slack, and customize the opt-in and match messages, with the option to preview or send a test before going live.

Yes, through Forms attached to your program:

Yes, via Program Notes, visible on the registration page (for open enrollment) and on the shared Mentorship page.

It's the one shared space each pair gets once matched: profiles, milestone progress, upcoming sessions, resources, and a "Send a message" option to reach each other directly.

Members verify their identity by email using a unique 6-digit code before entering the page.

Whatever category fields you choose to display under the "Participants" settings, giving mentors and mentees relevant context about each other at a glance.

Yes, Mentorship supports multiple simultaneous programs, so you can run different tracks (e.g., onboarding buddies and reverse mentoring) in parallel.

Whoever you designate under the "Participants" settings tab, they need administrator rights on RandomCoffee, and their name appears at the bottom of the Mentorship page.

Does Mentorship integrate with our other RandomCoffee features?

Yes, Mentorship works alongside Broadcasts for internal communications, Forms for data collection, and Notes for resources.